There have been several tax changes in the Budget:

1. Changes to Personal Allowances –
   The Personal Allowance is the amount of income you can earn before you start paying Income Tax. This is currently £10,600 – it will already rise to £11,000 in 2016, and will now increase further to £11,500 in April 2017.

   The point at which you pay the higher rate of Income Tax will increase from £42,385 to £43,000 in 2016 and to £45,000 in April 2017.

2. Employment Allowance – The employment allowance is £3,000 but there is a restriction on it being used by single person companies.
3. Dividend Tax -From April 2016 you’ll pay tax on any dividends you receive over £5,000 at the following rates:
   • 7.5% on dividend income within the basic rate band
   • 32.5% on dividend income within the higher rate band
   • 38.1% on dividend income within the additional rate band

   This simpler system…

It’s estimated that 430,000 contractors will be affected by the new rules!

Under the new rules certain groups of workers will no longer be able to claim tax relief on travel and subsistence expenses, specifically:

• Those employed via umbrella companies (employment intermediaries).
• If you personally provide services to another person.
• The draft legislation confirms that limited company contractors are not affected by this new restriction, except for any contract work they carry out which is caught by the IR35 rules.

We expect that the new rules will prevent claims for routine travel but allow exceptional travel. For example say you normally work in London that would be excluded but they you have to go to a meeting in Birmingham, that trip should be allowed.

steve@bicknells.net

First lets have a recap on why Pensions are a fantastic investment and a great way to save tax.

Inheritance Tax

IHT only applies if the pension company has to pay the value of your scheme to your estate, in which case it becomes like any other asset, but generally the pension pot is held in a discretionary trust, which means it isn’t taxed on death.

You can now nominate anyone not just dependents to be the beneficiary.

Since 6th April 2015 anyone who inherits a pension fund from a person who dies before the age of 75 is entitled to receive it tax free and the you can take the money as a lump sum or income. Once over 75 a special tax of 45% applies (previously 55%), you could reduce this by taking a regular income. The tax rate should drop again in April 2016.

Business Premises

Your…

Every business has important dates to remember!

VAT Quarterly (or Monthly), filed one month and 7 days later paid by one month and 10 days later

PAYE/CIS Monthly – tax period to 5th of the month, filed by 19th paid by 22nd (you should remember monthly tasks without reminders)

RTI/FPS/EPS everytime you pay employees (you probably don’t need to be reminded to do this)

Company Accounts – due 9 months after year end, corporation tax payable 9 months and 1 day after year end

Self Assessment payments on account in January and July

Annual Returns on the 12 month anniversary of when the company started

HMRC and Companies House apply tough penalties for filing late!

Its a common problem area, the fine comes in and then accountant and client blame each other

Its easy to understand how very large accounting practices simply lose track of when things need to be…

Now you have filed your April 2015 Return (50% will have been filed in January 2016) you only have 2 months left to take action to save tax on your April 2016 tax return.

What should you be doing right now to save tax?

Contribute to your Pension

Transitional rules, for 2015/16 only, mean that there’s an annual allowance of £80,000, although only £40,000 of this can be used between 9 July 2015 and 5 April 2016. You may also have unused annual allowances from the three previous tax years.

These Transitional rules are to align PIP’s (Pension Input Periods) with the Tax Year.

Pensions have huge tax saving advantages

How a family pension scheme will save you tax

Optimise your 2015/16 Salary

You can’t carry forward any unused personal allowances so generally the optimum salary will be £10,600

What is the optimum tax efficient salary 2015-16?

Take Dividends now

When…

Many businesses require the skills of professionals to oversee and direct financial operations. These professionals are referred to CFOs, chief financial officers, or financial directors (FD).

So what should your Chief Financial Officer be doing for your business…..

1. The CFO should be able to look into to future to see what the future financial needs of the business will be
2. He/She should negotiate funding facilities to ensure the business can manage its cash flow needs
3. The CFO should be able to foresee the future tax consequences and risks of decisions
4. He/She should help the business to achieve the best possible credit scores
5. Identify ways to reduce costs and improve profitability
6. Understand the business owners objective and focus the business on achieving those objectives
7. Ensure financial and regulatory compliance
8. Ensure accurate and timely reporting of management information
9. Evaluate growth opportunities
10. Apply…

Restriction of Mortgage Interest Tax Relief

The governments’ plan is to restrict individuals on claiming mortgage interest as a cost against their property investment income, for individuals it will work as follows

2017/18 75% of the interest can be claimed in full and 25% will get relief at 20%

2018/19 50% of the interest can be claimed in full and 50% will get relief at 20%

2019/20 25% of the interest can be claimed in full and 75% will get relief at 20%

2020/21 100% will get only 20% relief

For a 20% tax payer that’s fine but for higher rate taxpayer its a disaster that will lead to them paying a lot more tax

These rules will not apply to Companies, Companies will continue to claim full relief.

What could a Property Investor do to reduce the impact of these changes?

Here are a few ideas….

1. Pension Contributions –…